It is considered a necessity today to be living in population centers with tall skyscrapers, thick cigarette smoke sticking to apartment windows, plugged sewage, a heavy viscous smell of gasoline in the air, and chewed gum on sidewalks — just to progress in life. Metropolises are known as the hubs of technological advancements, opportunity, education, and the future. Living in these urban centers is often the end goal of creatives, academics, and professionals. We like to think that nature is not a necessity for human life or wellbeing, but it is a choice and a luxury — increasingly so now.

But how can we associate these centers of sharp, and intimidating architecture with “progress”, when these very buildings generate so much human stress that inhibits our progress in virtually every aspect possible of our lives?

On Nov. 13, Dr. Tetiana Dovbischuk – a postdoctoral researcher at the NYUAD Center for Interacting Urban Networks (CITIES) – hosted a seminar to discuss the emotional benefits of human interactions with nature. This interview further delves into her findings, and explores how we – from students and individuals to cities and institutions – can apply and maximize these innate human inclinations to nature to benefit our daily lives.

Considering the current disregard and overlook nature in modern architectural pursuits, I was intrigued as to what inspired Dr. Dovbischuk’s exploration of how nature impacts on a person’s affect-balance – or the relative frequency and intensity of positive versus negative emotions that an individual experiences.

“We want to have livable cities where everyone wants to live, [cities] that are still sustainable and which are walkable, [...] where we have some friends and nature plays a very, very big role in it. [...] And this was like, we know that there is a positive association between health and nature or like life satisfaction and nature, but I was interested in the processes behind it, like what exactly does it influence and how do people react to it?”

And although this affinity for nature might not be shocking to some, it does lack practical application and a conscious change in lifestyle to support this knowledge. Despite that, the effects of our desire to be around nature still persists, even subconsciously in decisions to move away from areas with green spaces. “I didn't expect, for example, in my study on the relevance of green spaces for relocation decision-making, that joint green spaces that are not publicly available, that are not private, are so important for relocation processes. [...] They deterred city dwellers from making an intention to move away, not for the moving away process itself, but for this decision-making to move away,” Dr. Dovbischuk discussed her findings.

But these green spaces also usually exist in communities of a more affluent economic background. “There is plenty of research that shows that a distribution with public green spaces is very uneven across the city,” states Dr. Tetiana. Joint green spaces lie between private and public spaces – not exactly private enough for an individual family but not public at the whole city’s disposal – could be the solution to the gap in the presence of green spaces between lower and higher economic backgrounds.

But even as students who have privileged access to a campus that cleverly incorporates regular exposure to nature into its architecture, more informed decisions to interact with nature should be made.

Dr. Tetiana also reiterates the fact that a deep love of nature or a regular daily, weekly, or routine exposure of nature is not needed for the effects to take place. “But it's about like if you do it today; today you will have a better mood; today you will have a better psychological well-being. And this is what data shows,” she said. Therefore, this should encourage anybody to interact with nature in any way as much as they can, as it is not like any other regular activity like the gym or a diet that needs routine. It is instantly gratifying, unlike many things in life, and we seem to take for granted this immediate relieving quality of nature.

“We have the very inborn need for restoration and relaxation. Like we need to restore our energy, restore our resources, [...] Like everyone needs to restore his or her resources and there is a lot of research that shows that nature is great at restoring your resources because your brain acts differently if you look at a white wall or if you look at a tree because these are very different structures.”

However, an awareness on campus of these effects as a result of very simple everyday choices to take the walk outside instead of inside would make the world of a difference

Using this research to envision the future, Dr. Dovbischuk hopes for “researchers, architects and urban planners, if they had the opportunity to work together.” As currently, these three institutions that are in charge of creating, developing, and designing cities seem to be working in isolated ways that don’t consider the very evident benefit that an overlapping execution of their fields would bring.